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Overnight I charged my 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport in the „range mode“.
Early in the morning on this sunny day, I made my trip of about 30 Kilometers to the Race Track of Lignieres.

I was looking forward for a perfect training day what the Swiss club TCS calls „Sport-Auto“.

In my group there was a Lotus Elise, tuned with a compressor, track tyres and bigger brakes, an Audi tuned to 700 PS ( Yes! ), a Mazda RX7, A VW Golf and a VW Scirocco.

We all had some theory lessons and then we went straight to the race track. It is a small and narrow track, but as we were not really racing, it was perfect. Everybody got a handheld transceiver and was guided by the professionals.

We learned and exercised, how to be fast on the track, we learned how to omit obstacles, we learned the handling on wet surfaces, with and without traction control. And at the end of the day we were allowed „free driving“ 3 x 15 minutes on the track.

The Tesla was everybodys darling! Every single instructor and participant wished to know everything about the car. Mostly they did not believe the numbers, but the Roadster prooved them wrong!

One very interesting exercise was certainly a 90 degrees curb with a speed recording entering and exiting. The best exiting speed was for the Lotus Elise at 94Km/h, the Audi made 90 Km/h, I was able to reach 80 to 82 Km/h. The Mazda and the VW have been clocked at around 76 Km/h
The palmares was the same with free driving. The small Lotus with its compressor was the fastest on track followed closely by the „monster Audi“ and then it was the Tesla.

Many asked how will the brakes hold? The brakes had their full power all the time, but are clearly to weak for the racetrack. When driving closely behind the Renaulr Gordini of the instructors or the Lotus, I was in real trouble when they decided to brake.

The other question was will the car overheat in race conditions? Well, the race track is on 1000 Meters altitude, and it was a sunny day at around 13 degrees Celsius. So during practicing, there were no problems at all. The first 15 minutes of free driving have been no problem at all, neither. On the second 15 minutes at the last lap I got the message „Power limit“, I think because of the motor heat. But you should have seen the Audi! Allready after the first 15 minutes stint its brakes were fuming, the Lotus was overheating, and the Mazda had to refill some engine oil! After the second 15 minutes, the Lotus driver was able to pick pieces out of his tyres

The last question was how will be the range of the battery on the race track. The answer is difficult, but I would say: Absolutely sufficient. The trip to and from the track was around 60 Km. I did charge during the lunch, for about 75 minutes, but they had only a 10A, 220 V outlet, so this is not really charging. When I got home, I still had over 50 Km of „ideal reange“.
At the same time the „Ueber-Audi“ did burn around 80 Litres of fuel!

When I got home, I took a bath and then went to a fancy restaurant with my wife and the Tesla. Perfect closure of a perfect day!

So what is the conclusion of this perfect day?

You really can go racing with the Tesla „as-is“.

Reasons why is the Lotus much faster on a small track:
The Tesla has a big tendency to understeer, the adjustable suspension can help , but not cure this tendency 100%.
The Traction Control kicks in too early for the race track.
The brakes could be much stronger for the race track.
The Lotus is around 600 Kg lighter.

Besides that, I think that my Continental tyres might be good for everyday use, but have not enough grip for the track.

It would be nice if you could have a setting „sport“ for the Traction Control. So that it kicks in much later. I had trouble to accelerate, I think the Traction control should - for the race track, that is - focus more on the rear wheels and less on the front wheels.

very good experience, maybe we should try to get several teslas to do this again. I would like to join the group. I think its important to learn handle the Tesla better. In the recent days i had the chance to do some circle on the track of the ADAC Fahrsicherheitszentrum in Nohra near the city of Erfurt. I was really amazed over the handling of my tesla under the extreme condition, you can find on race tracks only.

The ADAC Fahrsicherheitszentrum in Nohra has even a charging station with 2x32A, unfortunately with Mennekes plugs, but 16A works fine. But i think ADAC would be able to set up a temporal installation with 32A 3-phase = 3 times 32A